SHOCKING TRAGEDY

Evening Star, Issue 23451, 16 December 1939, Page 8

SHOCKING TRAGEDY

SMALL BOY S FATE SWEPT SEVEN WILES UNDER TOWN Six-year-old Michael Saunders fell 20ft down a;manhole into the sewers of Hayes, Middlesex, arid by the! time his body was found, three hours later, it had been carried about seven miles by the swirling water. Firemen went underground and sought the boy by searchlight; Workmen, kept watch at many points of the system over many miles. Michael’s body was found at Hounslow. It was uninjured but for a graze on one of his hands. He roust i have drowned almost immediately. His mother, getting ready to go for a walk with him, said, “ Go and play outside, but don’t go far away.” Michael met his four-year-old friend, Vivienne Howard, who lives near by in Lothian Avenue, and they trotted together along Yeading Lane. They turned their heads as they were walking to watoh two dogs, of which they were afraidSuddenly Vivienne . found that Michael had disappeared. She ran home and said, “ Michael has fallen down Abig hole, mummy.” Sirs Howard had had to go to tell Mrs Saunders the news.